Probably getting the Insight....

Well....I tried to Prius II, but my salesman sold the car out from underneath me. Now almost all the Prii within driving distance are spoken for....at least for another month. Seeing as I wanted to take advantage of CFC if I could, I called to see what I could get an Insight for....to my surprise, 3 dealerships said they would give me about $1000-1400 off sticker. Taking the lowest offer, I'm at $17,000 out the door after my clunker. With the Prius II I planned on getting, I was at $19k OTD.

Hopefully the Insight turns out to be a good car.

I hope it works out.

I think so many people using the C4C are settling on cars. Hopefully they won't regret it later on.

Get the car that you really like. Fly out of state if necessary and drive back. Later down the road, you may end up trading in for the Prius. I am sure it will be worth the extra a couple of hundred dollar for the flight.

Hi Eddie;

Too bad you cannot shoot for a Prius as it is the better car in so many areas.

However, depending on your expectations the 2010 Insight can also be a lot fun and based on the price you'll end up getting it for, it is still one of the better choices available today.

If your goal is fuel economy the Insight will not disappoint especially if your goal is meeting its EPA rating. It does so with ease on almost all driving regimens.

But on the other hand, if you learn to leverage the car's features (ask the community and we'll load you up with "how to" details) then nothing can stop you from getting tanks in the high 60's and even low 70 MPGs with relative ease.

Cheers;

MSantos

Be patient. No rush for something you're paying that much for

A little tough to do, since he said he has a car to trade in.

Its a tough situation, I don't think the Insight is that bad. What is bad is the thought of settling on a 4-6 year commitment (unless you take a loss) of $17k.

Good luck.

Be careful not to allow C4C to drive you to make bad decision, but make sure you actually like the Insight. 2k is nothing in the long run.

How many dealers have you called? I had a business trip last week and decided to try and squeeze and try to buy a PII before I left. I found the dealer happy to help. I did not get my first color choice but was happy to have sealed the deal on the 25th.

I would call at least 10 dealers and go up to 100 miles if I had to do it again.

I would do this anyway regardless of time line availability or convenience.

Theres no reason to rush into buying a car. CFC or not.

This is another reason why the C4C implementation is so wrong. Instead of putting so much pressure on consumer and dealer, the govt should have designated junk yards where you could turn your car in for a coupon. Then you can take your coupon to a participating dealer and it would have a 6 month expiration date. Instead of being forced to buy a car, you could wait until you found the one you wanted. This would also spread the sales out a bit, eliminating the all or nothing crush that is happening right now.

I'm trying to be logical about this, but the combination of the Toyota dealership screwing me and needing a car within the next 3 weeks makes that sorta difficult.

Considering the sticker price difference ($800), the Prius seems to be the clear choice. With a $2,000 difference in price, the Insight starts to make a little more sense, IMO.

Economy? The two comparisons I've seen so far (Edmunds & Motor Trend) have the Insight about 5mpg behind the Prius....so overall, this category may be close to a wash. I noticed that Honda has the oil life monitor which usually go about 10k miles before needing an oil change. This could cut down on $75 oil changes and probably offset the savings due to the Prius better gas mileage. The Insight's smaller tires are also likely to help in this category.

Looks are about equal, IMO. I showed a friend the side profiles and they couldn't tell them apart initially. LOL.

Reliability? Honda & Toyota are both very good. Which battery pack will last longer? I have no idea. Maybe they'll both last the life of the car?

Sporty handling goes to Honda. Ride quality goes to Toyota.

The Prius has a bigger backseat which I would definitely miss.

All within the state. I think one dealer had one in (not the color I want), but they are adding a ridiculous $600 dealer fee which I refuse to pay. I found one dealer in NC that isn't charging the dealer fee (Jim Barkley), but they are also sold out and have a 100 customer waiting list.

Hard to believe that a white or blue Prius II with dark grey interior can't be found anywhere in NC for MSRP + tax.

I guess my other option is to sell my clunker for $2800 and wait for good dealers (no fees) to get more stock....but at that point, the price difference essentially becomes $3700.

To be honest, if you were to get the Insight you'll always have in the back of your mind if you should have gotten the Prius. I don't think it would be that way the other way around.

Don't be afraid to go to a neighboring region if you can't find the car you want where you are. Ihad a very successful out-of-region transaction. I stand with the happy Prius owners - don't compromise on the car you really want. It may take some effort - but it will be worth it!! Good Luck!!

eddie,

Did you like the Insight's dashboard? That's the part you're gonna see most of your car. To be honest, I found it a bit cluttered.

If you are in CT, my dealer has 3 II in stock

This was just released, maybe some more info for your decision: 2010 Honda Insight vs. 2010 Toyota Prius - The Heavyweight Hybrids Weigh In

From Consumer Reports blog on the Insight:

Pet peeve: Poor line of (In)sight
[SIZE=-1] That the Insight hasn’t made a positive impression on us here at Consumer Reports isn’t newsworthy anymore. I personally wasn’t impressed with it during my time driving it, finding it very rough when the engine automatically shut off at stoplights. I also think the Insight is noisy, cramped, too slow, and overall unpleasant. But the coup de grâce for me is the relationship between seating, the dash, and the steering wheel.
I’m 6-feet tall and prefer to sit relatively upright with the seat cushion as low to the floor as possible. With the Insight, no matter how I adjusted the seat and steering wheel positions, I ran into a conflict between comfort and seeing the high-mounted digital speedometer.

In order to see the speedometer I had to lower the steering wheel…which resulted in my hands or the wheel rim impacting my thighs. If I raised the wheel enough to clear my legs, I no longer can see the speedometer, as shown in the photo.

Perhaps I’m outside of the percentile range of people to which Honda sized the car. But I don’t think I’ve ever come across a vehicle that forced me to make such a compromised choice between being able to comfortably and safely control the car and actually see all of the gauges.
[/SIZE]

Say what you will but that Honda Insight is one heck of a fine car built buy one of the if not THE best car company on the planet. Honda is long lived and has one if not the best resale value of all cars. If all you need is an around town grocery getter, you have it. It will take us years to catch up to the amount of money you are saving if it were used to buy gasoline. Insight owners are getting gas mileage in the 50's easily and that engine of theirs is state of the art. The seats are better but the leg room in the back is to small for us big Americans. I would be proud to have on in my garage.